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Quest for Twilight Enchantment Day 6
Description Welcome to the VFK Twilight Enchantment Epic Quest, Day 6! In this sixth day of your epic quest for Twilight Enchantment, we will explore the creepy, crawly, insect sized world of spiders! Halloween images almost always include spiders. They are one of the most "creepy" symbols of this holiday. For most people, a sudden encounter with a spider or its sticky web can cause a heart-stopping fearful reaction anywhere from raising mild goose-bumps to causing someone to run screaming from a room. These eight-legged critters, and their uncanny ability to make us shudder, are largely misunderstood, and despite the fact that spiders are the classic way to say "BOO," they are beneficial insects. Your reward for completing this sixth stage of this Epic Quest will be 1,000 credits and your sixth Twilight Pin, the Spider Pin! Prizes Questions 1. So, is the fear that spiders instill in people justified? In a lot of cases, the fear has been conditioned into us from the time we were children to keep us from reaching out to touch that cute fuzzy spider. Also, myths and legends including stories about being bit by a brown recluse, a black widow, or even a tarantula pervade our culture. In reality only a few species of "sac spiders" or "clubionids" are thought to cause the most incidences of spider bites. "Sac spider" venom, which is a cytotoxin, can cause the area of the bite to become damaged and die. Most spiders, however, do not harm humans. Why are most spiders not harmful to humans? * Humans smell bad to spiders. * Their venom isn't poisonous. * Their fangs are too weak or small to pierce the skin of humans. * They can only bite humans when molting. 2. The venom of spiders is poisonous to its prey, however most spider venom is not very harmful to humans. Usually a bite from a spider will cause only a small amount of inflammation or swelling and may cause an itching at the site of the bite. Spiders don't usually attempt to bite humans unless they are harassed, handled or trapped against the skin. Even the largest spider in the world, the Goliath Birdeater Tarantula which is native to South America, is not very poisonous to humans. Often if they bite, they will not even inject any venom, which is called a "dry bite". Go to the waterfall room in Australia and say "The biggest spider in the world is a foot across." 3. The anatomy of spiders is that they have eight legs, (four pairs) which are based in the thorax. They have two body sections, a fused head and thorax, or the cephalothorax, and an abdomen. The two parts are joined in the center by a thin waist. A spider's simple eyes which are either six or eight in number, are arranged on the head in different ways according to species. Their fangs are actually two jaw like appendages which are hollow at the ends like a tube through which the spider can inject venom into its prey. They have small spinnerets at the tip of their abdomen that produce silk. Young spiders look like their parents except they are smaller and may be a different color. What are young spiders called? * Spiderlets * Spiderlings * Baby spiders * Nursery spiders 4. The silken balls that you find in spider webs are egg sacs. The sacs may be attached to the web or a surface or carried by the female spider. Spiders will shed their skin, which enables them to grow larger and will molt from four to twelve times before they are full grown. Spiders can live anywhere from a few months to several years. Every spider species can produce silk. This silk comes out of the spinnerets as a liquid and upon contact with the air turns into a solid thread. They are used for many purposes, however the most interesting is that baby spiders release silk threads which will carry them away to a new location on the wind. This behavior is called ballooning. Go to the map of the medieval setting and say "Spiders are cool!" 5. Some of the most interesting facts about spiders are how they are adapted to catch their food. They are categorized according to the way they do this. Some spiders catch their prey in spider web nets, some go out and actively hunt their prey and some are ambush hunters which wait for their food to come to them. Spiders cannot chew, they can only drink liquids. What well known "spider" is not really a spider? * A Tarantula * A Jumping Spider * A Crab Spider * A Daddy-long legs spider 6. Spiders that build webs use their constructions to capture their prey. Their webs may be simple or very elaborate. There are several different groups of web building spiders. They include cobweb spiders, cellar spiders, funnel web spiders and orb weaver spiders. Because they build webs, they are more of a nuisance than other spiders and their webs are an irritation in addition to the presence of the spider. Spiders will sometimes abandon webs that are not catching pray and you can tell if a web is abandoned as it becomes dust covered. Go to the front of the U.S. Marshall's office in the Wild West and say "Step into my parlor!" 7. There are a number of spiders that go out and actively look for food. You will usually only see these spiders when they are out hunting. These types of spiders include the nursery web spiders, wolf spiders and jumping spiders. Jumping spiders are quick spiders that can jump and walk backwards. They are stocky in build and have the best eyesight of all the spiders. They are diurnal and like sunny days. Wolf spiders are fast runners and will chase their prey. They are usually hairy and quite large and may sometimes be mistaken for taratulas. Because they are so fast and so big, they can be scary when you run into them. What do the female wolf spiders do with their young? * They let the males take care of them. * They carry their spiderlings on their backs after hatching. * They push them out of the nest a few days after hatching. * They attach a thread to their spiderlings and pull them along. 8. Nursery web spiders are very large and can be 3 inches across from foot to foot. They like to live near lakes and creeks and if you find them indoors, they are in moist areas. They have the ability to run on water and can dive below the surface and stay under the water for a long time. They hunt both during the day and night for water insects and small fish. They are also sometimes referred to as fishing spiders. Go to the waterfall room in the Audubon Wildlife Adventure Game and say "Hey spider, are the fish biting today?" 9. Some spiders are passive hunters. This means that they wait for their prey to come to them and catch them when they go by. One spider called the crab spider has a flatter body and holds its front two pairs of legs out to the side which makes them look like a crab. They can walk forwards, backwards and sideways. Where are you most likely to find these colorful spiders? * In trees and flowers. * In attics and basements. * In wood piles and rotten logs. * Next to water and in damp places. 10. Did you know that spiders were sent to space in 1973 for an experiment aboard Skylab? Two female European Garden spiders named Anita and Arabella were taken into orbit on the Skylab 3 mission. They were to spin webs in space so that researchers could see the effect of zero gravity on their webs. The spiders spun webs which were examined for variations from ones spun on earth in normal gravity. They found some noticeable differences in the thickness of the web. Go to the outside of the castle where the fountain is, and say "Spiders Surprise!" Answers 1. Their fangs are too weak or small to pierce the skin of humans. 2. Go to the Australian Waterfall and say "The biggest spider in the world is a foot across." 3. Spiderlings 4. Go to the Medieval Age map and say "Spiders are cool!" 5. A Daddy-long legs spider 6. Go to the front of the U.S. Marshalls office in the Wild West and say "Step into my parlor!" 7. They carry their spiderlings on their backs after hatching. 8. Go to the Audubon Tranquil Waterfall and say "Hey spider, are the fish biting today?" 9. In trees and flowers. 10. Go to the Castle Entrance, and say "Spiders Surprise!" Category:Quests Category:Epic Quests